The present invention relates to a circuit for detecting hydrocarbons and which also has the ability to detect water and to indicate that neither hydrocarbons nor water are present.
It has become increasingly important to be able to detect the presence of hydrocarbons or to detect that a fluid which is present is not a hydrocarbon. This is particularly useful in leak detection systems wherein there is no ability to visually access the area surrounding an oil tank or a gas tank and therefore a detector must be capable of determining if a liquid in the vicinity of the gas tank or oil tank is only water or whether it is gas or oil leaking from the tank.
While there are presently a number of leak detectors, these detectors do not have the ability to directly determine whether a fluid is a hydrocarbon. Rather, these detectors indirectly determine that a fluid is a hydrocarbon by first determining whether or not a fluid is present and then whether or not the fluid is water.